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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
DiCamillo, Kate

The Hotel Balzaar

160 pp. | Candlewick | October, 2024 | Trade ISBN 9781536223316 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 9781536240122 $17.99
(2) 4-6 Norendy Tales series. Illustrated by Júlia Sardà. In this second volume in DiCamillo's projected trio of novellas (beginning with The Puppets of Spelhorst, rev. 9/23), Marta lives in the attic of a grand hotel where her mother works as a cleaner. Mother and daughter lead anxious, constricted existences as they wait, powerless, for news of Marta's father, away fighting in the Great War. But Marta's life becomes more interesting when an elegant, elderly countess (complete with parrot) checks into the hotel and seeks out her company as an audience for her stories. The six tales the countess recounts are mysterious, peopled with nuns, soldiers, kings, foxes, and circus performers. In each there are echoes of Marta's life and predicament, and in each is a portent of hope. The countess disappears before she relates the seventh and final story. But all is well as that last tale, encompassing all the others, plays out in action as Marta's father returns. The flavors of this novella -- the sorrows of war and the consolations of story -- are given sharp specificity in the black-and-white drawings. In the main narrative, Sardà creates the grandest of art nouveau hotels, all decorative pattern and dramatic swoop. In the embedded stories she uses a simpler style, reminiscent of medieval woodblocks. The total effect is generous, rich, and inviting.
Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

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